Cathedral or Mosque?

Cordoba is a charming small town with narrow streets and high, white washed walls. Our guide likened walking through town to being in a maze, and looking back, I would have to agree. But the high, white walls and narrow passages of the Jewish quarter serve the purpose of keeping the sun off the ground for most of the day while at the same time reflecting the bright hot sun rather than absorbing it into the buildings.

The town’s natural beauty is enhanced by the variety of trees, plants and flowers found throughout the numerous paths and walkways. The residents are pretty proud of their patio gardens and hold an annual competition each May to determine who has the best in the city.

There are even several “natural” water fountains throughout the city where you can freely refill your water bottles or freshen up from the effects of the hot afternoon sun.

But as nice as all that is, that’s not what brought us there yesterday. No. What brought us, and millions of other people every year, to Cordoba was the opportunity to see the famous Cathedral-Mosque.

But wait…which is it, a cathedral or a mosque? That was Matthew’s question as we prepared for our morning bicycle ride to the tour pick up location 10 minutes away. All I knew was that we had to wear pants out of respect for the temple, regardless of the soaring temperatures.

It was while looking up the dress code, that I also learned something else that temporarily shocked me. I read that there had been a fire at the temple (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) last Friday, only five days ago! Had we come all this far only to be denied at the last minute?

The good news is that the fire was discovered quickly and contained by the local fire department before too much damage was done. So, crisis was averted and the site remained open for visitors (although construction crews are already on the scene performing restoration work).

So, after a well deserved lunch break, we finally arrived at our destination.

Our guide first explained to me that the whole “wearing pants thing” didn’t apply in the heat of summer, which explains why we were probably the only two people in the city wearing pants! That’s what I get for being a lifelong rule follower.

Once inside however all of that was forgotten as we began to experience the unique beauty and magnificence of the temple.

There is so much history and tradition to this place but here’s a short summary.

During the period of Muslim rule, in the ninth century, when Cordoba was the seat of government, a Mosque was constructed to hold as many as 5000 worshipping men at a time. Sometime later the southern wall was torn down in order to add additional capacity, doubling the number of worshippers to over 10,000 at a time.

Hundreds of years later, during the Catholic Reconquista, Cordoba came under Christian rule. Normally the practice at the time was to tear down the Mosque and build a Cathedral on the same site. This time, however, the local church was so poor that recognizing the treasure of the temple and its possessions they devised an alternative plan.

That new plan was…Holy Water!

The Church decided that by simply sprinkling holy water throughout the temple (essentially “baptizing” the building) that they could achieve the best of all possibilities - save on demolition and reconstruction costs AND start using the building as a cathedral too!

So, an ornate cathedral was constructed within, along with dozens of beautiful Chapels (funded by the wealthy as a means of ensuring their place within the cathedral -as well as within heaven) around the perimeter of the interior. And once again, the capacity was further expanded, making it the largest Cathedral in the world (at that time, before the size of modern day St. Peter’s in Rome.

Hundreds of years later, the result is what we can see today. Officially known as the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, the temple is not a Mosque, but if it was it would be something like the third largest in the world, behind only Mecca itself and the Blue Mosque in Turkey.

As for its present status as the largest cathedral, well, remember that the cathedral was constructed within the interior of the mosque and to this day only occupies a small percentage of the buildings total square footage. Think of it as a church within a church or, more specifically a Cathedral within a former Mosque. Either way the actual square footage of the Cathedral puts its status nowhere near the top of the list of largest churches today.

Nonetheless, the Cathedral’s history is assuredly one of the most unique and fascinating and it remains one of the world’s most beautiful.

Take a look at these photos and see if you agree.